Graduate Advising

Requirements

An advanced course in evolutionary biology is the only specific course required of all graduate students. It must be taken for a letter grade during the graduate program if it was not completed during the student's undergraduate education. A student's supervisory committee may suggest courses as well.

Annual Committee Meetings. Students are required to meet with their relevant committee each year by the stated deadline. Please review specific requirements and deadlines on the Timeline page.

Four semesters of residency as required by the Graduate Division. This means you must be registered for a minimum of 4 semesters. There are no departmental unit requirements for the Ph.D. program.

A student in the Ph.D. program must take a three hour oral Qualifying Examination (QE) on fields specified by their QE Committee. Evolution is required to be one of the four Qualifying Exam subject areas.

Ph.D. candidates are required to write a dissertation based on original and independent research carried out by the student.

You are encouraged (but not required) to enroll in seminars in your field of specialization and present topics. Effective participation in seminars is a useful introduction to your field of specialization and may give you valuable direction for advanced study, particularly if you have not begun research activities.

Here is a current list of PhD requirementsfor the Integrative Biology Graduate Program

Graduate News

Geckos are renowned for their acrobatic feats on land and in the air, but a new discovery that they can also run on water puts them in the superhero category, says a University of California, Berkeley, biologist.

“We just have a decade or two given the rapid pace of climate and land-use change,” said Brent Mishler, a UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology and director of the University and Jepson Herbaria.